


Above the Glass

by Estirose



Category: Final Fantasy II, Zero: Akai Chou | Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly
Genre: Crossover, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-13
Updated: 2016-06-13
Packaged: 2018-07-14 19:30:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7187126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Estirose/pseuds/Estirose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yae has to contend with some visitors that are not of her world, and is not happy about it. Sequel to "Mysidia Tower's Shadow".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Above the Glass

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Mysidia Tower's Shadow](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2277801) by [Estirose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Estirose/pseuds/Estirose). 



> Takes place for the Fatal Frame universe in the AU created by "Mysidia Tower's Shadow" (Yae is alive with memories intact in Minakami village, Ryozo is in Minakami village with Itsuki still alive, while Sae is dead.) For Final Fantasy II, this is just before entering the Jade Passage.
> 
> I took some liberties with the Teleport spell for both stories, but after all, how did Minwu get to the Tower otherwise without encountering Leviathan?

Yae Kurosawa heard the yells as she was working. Even in her quiet part of the house, it was still possible to occasionally hear things from the village. Personally, she would have preferred to stay isolated from the villagers. No, in actuality, she would have preferred to be dead. But staying as far away from those who had directly or indirectly caused her sister to die was the best that she could do.

Her husband, Ryozo, was working down in the basement with the books. He'd been a folklorist in training, but she knew as well as he did that he'd never leave the village. He would be killed on sight if someone caught him leaving. Despite this, she knew he was cheerful for herself and for Itsuki, the pillar in their lives that kept them from joining the ghosts of the village. In fact, it seemed like quite a few of the villagers liked him, despite his absentmindedness. Yae didn't mind. She knew she couldn't be the companion and wife that Ryozo needed, and it might help him become the next Ceremony Master someday. If he could do that, maybe he could find a way to save future twins from what she and Itsuki had gone through.

There was a knock on her door. She frowned; the servants knew better than to disturb her unless they needed to. She put the financial records aside as the door opened. "Milady," the servant said, breathless. "The Lord Master bids you to come outside."

Outside in the front, she meant. Yae nodded, making sure that she looked befitting of the headman's daughter. "I'll be there." She hurried downstairs, passing through the corridors to the front of the house. When she stepped out the doors, her father was conversing softly with her husband about his knowledge of folklore.

"Yae," her father said, "There is an unusual... one might say disturbance... down below the Heaven Path."

The pathway between the Tachibana and Kiryu houses, then. Her father was looking at her expectantly, and she remembered another part of her accursed existence. She was a deity, tasked with watching over the people. It was just as well that few came to seek her counsel, and why she had become involved with recordkeeping. Among the books and numbers, she could be alone.

"Let me take you." Her husband stepped forward. He'd been adopted into their house and become a Kurosawa, because her father thought it would sever his ties to the outside world better. "It's very interesting, Yae! There are four of them - disappearing and reappearing, or in between like ghosts. I have never heard of such spirits!"

He was gesturing animatedly as they made their way across the bridge. There was a woman standing on an island to the east. She was dead, Yae knew, because Yae could see every spirit that still remained in All Gods' Village. She hadn't been able to before, but it was part of the price she was paying for that moment when she'd wrapped her hands around Sae's neck.

She concentrated instead on Ryozo's one-sided rambling of what these visitors could possibly be. A servant opened the gates, and she swept out, Ryozo following close behind. Or so she hoped. She was not a deity.

And then she saw them. Four people, dressed in various armors, solid but somewhat hazy. She'd seen armor in books, but this didn't seem like any she was even vaguely familiar with. Three men and a woman, she realized after a moment.

The villagers let her through, and she stared at the strangers. "My name is Yae Kurosawa, and I protect this village." Inwardly, she was relieved that they weren't of her world, couldn't be captured and put to a horrible death.

"My name is Firion, and this is Maria, Guy, and Leon," one of the men said she could see white hair sticking out of his helmet. Was he his world's version of a Remaining, then? But if so, what was he doing in their world? "We're on our way to the Jade Passageway, to find the Emperor."

Was he human? Other places had emperors, not just theirs.

"I've never heard of a Jade Passageway. Ryozo?" she asked, turning to her husband.

"I haven't heard of one myself." Ryozo shook his head. "But I wasn't fully trained. What is the name of the place that you're from?" He shifted from answering her questions to asking their guests one. She let him, because he would likely know more about the situation if he could ask more questions.

"We're from Phin." Yae wasn't sure she'd heard him right. "Maria, any idea about how to get back to where we were?"

"Teleport is white magic," Maria said, "Minwu's notes might have something...."

Yae tensed up at the name. It was a name that she did not expect ever to hear again, and didn't want to hear again. If it hadn't been for Minwu, for her sister's adamant declarations, the two of them and Ryozo would be free of this place by now.

She did not want these people in her village any longer. "Was your 'Minwu' a man in a long white robe, with a veil over his face?"

The four visitors just stared at Yae, and she saw the grief and sadness in their faces, much like the grief and sadness she had from losing Sae. "Yes," Firion said.

"Come with me." She hoped that they could and would come. Much to her relief, they did. She led them to the bank of the lake, to the place almost parallel to the haunted island. "Ryozo, please take the servants and I will be back soon." There was something incoherent in her sentence, but she couldn't decide what it was.

Her husband nodded and did just that. It wasn't because she was a deity, but because Ryozo respected her and would wait for her to explain. She waited until she and the others were alone.

"Much like you, I became trapped in a strange place with my sister. This is where I met Minwu; this place called the Tower of Mysidia. He was going somewhere, but he was able to send my sister and I back. To here."

The woman's name was Maria. She was paging through paper pages, no doubt Minwu's notes. 

"Your sister?" Firion asked. Yae suspected that he was trying to make conversation.

"Sae." Maybe Minwu had written their names in there. "She died, shortly after. She thought sacrificing herself would save everything...."

"Minwu... choice too." The broad, muscular man spoke gravely. Behind him, the fourth figure tapped his foot, as if wanting to leave.

"Minwu sacrificed himself to get us Ultima." There were perhaps tears in Firion's eyes, and Maria stopped reading to wipe hers. "We didn't know he was going to kill himself unsealing the door."

She didn't want to be outwardly angry at a person these people grieved for. She could talk about it to Ryozo later. She'd told him about the strange adventure she and Yae had had, after all.

"I'm sorry. Is there anything I could do to help?" These were his friends; they had to leave.

"I just want to know how we got here." But Firion was smiling a little. "I don't know if you could answer that."

"I thought so." Maria stopped looking at pages. "Firion, remember me mentioning that Minwu modified the teleport spell to go straight to the Tower? Bypassing Leviathan? He mentions using it again, just outside the tower, for two stranged visitors."

"To send us home." Yae looked over at her. "You arrived close to where my sister and I did." She realized that they'd need to go into the Tachibana house to finish. Itsuki could let them in. "But not where we did. If you could get to that place, could you return to where you were?"

"It might work. Firion, you're better than I am with Teleport - check over these notes?" Maria handed the pages over to Firion.

Firion nodded and started reading. And kept reading. Yae forced herself to remain patient and not join their fourth member in tapping his foot.

"I know what Minwu did," Firion said. "And I can replicate it."

Yae almost sighed in relief. She could see a servant standing by the door to her home, and quietly beckoned him over. With a bow, he came, bowing again when he reached her.

"Tell the Tachibanas that our visitors and I need to use their house." She hoped that would be sufficient.

Another bow, and he was scampering off. She followed, and she could see Firion and the others if she turned around. Hopefully she wouldn't have to look at the much longer. She wouldn't have to think of him again. It was bad enough that she could not get the ceremony out of her head, the feel of her sister's neck as she strangled Sae to death.

Fortunately, she didn't have to. She remembered too well where she'd arrived back to her own world, and it didn't take long for Firion and the others to disappear, as if they had never been there.

And then she went home. Ryozo was waiting for her, as was her father. "They're gone now," she said. It occurred to her that she would have been the only one to know how to get them out of there. "I need to get back to work."

"I'll take you upstairs," Ryozo told her, and she knew he wanted to talk. It didn't take long to reach their room, and then Ryozo was pouring tea for the both of them. "What happened?"

"They were friends with the man who told Sae it was okay to die." Sae, who had wanted her to be happy, and somehow didn't realize that she was the biggest bright spot in Yae's life. "I wanted them gone."

"I looked in my books... there's nothing that would seem to be a Jade Passage that I could find, but...."

"I don't think their world is ours." Thank goodness. "The link between their world and ours should be broken now." That's what Firion had thought, and what she had hoped. Even if he and the others didn't think that sacrifice was okay, she didn't want to ever deal with their world again. She was sure Itsuki would feel the same way when she told him the rest of the story. "They weren't spirits, but living beings, trapped between their world and ours. Now, they should be home."

Ryozo smiled. "They should be home... as we are."

"But not your home." Yae looked over at Ryozo.

"Yae, any place where you and Itsuki are is my home." He stepped forward, clasped her hands. "I don't blame you for what your sister chose to arrange for me. As far as I'm concerned, I could not have found a better wife - and a place I can devote myself to." To save future twins, she knew. But neither of them could say that out loud. "I don't regret that, Yae."

But if it wasn't for her, if it wasn't for Minwu, he wouldn't be there. They could have grown old, died together in a different place. She couldn't believe that her life someplace else would be anything but happy. 

There, safe with her husband, she allowed herself to cry.


End file.
